Thursday, December 23, 2010

Once upon a time, in a far away land, it was Monday.

I wasn’t going to start until January but they told me to come in early this Monday anyway. So I did.

I got there, I was hungry. I ran into an old high school teacher who now worked there as a security guard at the cafeteria. I was hungry so I ordered some food.

I had friends now. My brother had traveled with me to the office, all the way to Antipolo because he had nothing better to do. I, my newfound friends and my brother were chatting about nothing.

Later, we went up a few floors. It was a bit confusing because there were several elevators of different sizes, none of which were ever in the same place twice. I’m sure we were going somewhere but the elevator maze threw us off.

Some floors had docks – where ships & passengers come in from who-knows-where. Some had a warehouse partially converted to a shop for used clothes.

Come night time, new job completely forgotten or deleted completely from the scenario as my mind saw fit, we were at the garage area of the office that looked a lot like the standard garage houses around here would have. A little gate, a cheap tarp roof strung over the monobloc chairs and table scattered around, occupied by people.

The makeshift roof was blocking my vision of the night sky so I found myself wandering onto the quiet street. Looking up, I saw 5 strange lights followed by 1… 2… 3 more. I thought, “Holy shit. Did I just see UFOs?!” I was hell-bent on getting back inside, to safety, until I noticed something else flying across the sky.

I thought I’d imagined seeing a falling star. I looked up and I saw one that stayed around for what seemed like forever. And 3 others surrounding it. I watched and the meteors just kept coming.

I went back to the gate. My voice was hoarse but I managed just enough volume to yell “METEOR SHOWER!!!”

People ran outside to ooh and aah at the beauty. Most of us walked to the very edge of the street – where the fields and concrete roads merged.

Soon enough, the meteor shower suddenly turned into a shower of debris. There were dust and pebbles everywhere. In a panic, we all ran inside. So did I, screaming for my brother the whole time, making sure he made it back safe. I shouted my brother’s name a lot. I was terrified I had lost him. (I didn’t.)

Incident of the debris-storm already forgotten, I’m now back in the office. I see the clear glass wall through which we can see the docks. A huge passenger ship just parked. The fog barely allowed visibility. The people that arrived from the ship and fog had their jackets on, their hoods up and were laughing about the cold, their breath mixing right in with the fog.

I walked to the clothes store. Amidst the South Park hats, plaid raincoats and Christmas sweaters, I tried to find one that could keep me warm.